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John Erik Fossum
Professor
- Phone: +47 22 85 49 01
- Fax: +47 22 85 78 32
- E-mail: j.e.fossum@arena.uio.no
John Erik Fossum is professor at ARENA and Adjunct Professor at the Department of Administration and Organization Theory at the
University of Bergen. Fossum holds a Ph. D. in political science from the University of British Colombia, Canada. His main fields of interest include political theory, constitutionalism and the complex of the EU, europeanisation and international integration.
Projects:
Democratic Legitimacy
John Erik Fossum is co-architect behind, E. O. Eriksen’s (coordinator’s) substitute and co-chair of two work-packages of the 5-year long ARENA-led and EU Commission funded (€ 5 million) research project RECON - Reconstituting Democracy in Europe (RECON), which has 20 partner universities across Europe.
Fossum was co-architect behind, E. O. Eriksen’s (coordinator’s) substitute and head of two of the work-packages of the 3-year long ARENA-led research project CIDEL Citizenship and Democratic Legitimacy in the EU, which included ten partners in six European countries, and was financed by the Fifth Framework Programme (€ 1.6 million).
The Politics of Identity and Citizenship in the EU and Canada
This project focuses on the scope of as well as the conditions for value-based social movement activism in Europe. It contrasts the case of the EU with that of Canada because the latter has been involved in a very lengthy process of constitutional change which sparked very extensive social movement activism and greatly altered the country's constitutional culture and the nature of its public sphere. In Canada the "moral grammar of social conflict" has manifested itself in a profound concern with recognition.
The EU and Canada are probably the two entities in the world - through peaceful and democraticdevelopments – that have explored or actually carried out constitutional and other changes that appear to diverge the most from the classical nation-state model. Both entities exhibit highly complex and post-national patterns of identification and more complex and multifaceted approaches to legitimation than is the case in conventional nation-states. The project juxtaposes these two entities because of the magnitude of transformation that they have undergone or have actively considered (in other words, the debate on fundamental questions is also considered relevant, not only actual changes).
The interesting difference between these two entities is that despite the magnitude of change, the political, popular and academic debates that are conducted in the two entities are remarkably different. In Canada there has long been an almost obsessive concern with identity, community and diversity, much of which has been carried forth by social movement activism, whereas there appears to be remarkably little of this in the EU. The question, then, is why there has been so much emphasis on the struggle for recognition in Canada, and, in comparison, why there has been so little emphasis on this in the European integration process - although there is no question that the European integration process deeply affects people's identities and sense of belonging. There is probably far more ethically salient diversity in Europe than in Canada.
In this project these questions will be examined by studying the "moral grammar of social conflict", with particular emphasis on the conditions for social mobilisation in each system, in other words the costs and benefits that groups are faced with in terms of mobilisation. Which groups mobilise and why do they mobilise? Are they concerned with economic benefits or `utility', are they concerned with identity and values, or are they concerned with rights? The assessment of group-based patterns of mobilisation and the systemic factors that facilitate as well as repress mobilising efforts, and the pattern of opportunities and threats facing groups and collective actors will help shed light on the question of which logic of political integration predominates. The project establishes a methodological framework, that enables us to operationalise and test the motivations of groups as well as shed light on central aspects of the structural conditions for social mobilisation in the two entities.
Selected publications:
The European Union and the Public Sphere: A communicative space in the making? London: Routledge, forthcoming (Philip Schlesinger co-editor). This book assesses the possible formation of a communicative space that might enable and engender the creation of a transnational or a supranational public. The contributors consider the EU's democratic credentials and how well it communicates, and they also evaluate the major institutions and their links to general publics.
Developing a Constitution for Europe, London: Routledge 2004 (John Erik Fossum, Agustín Menéndez co-editors). The European Union is currently in the midst of a comprehensive process of reform and the aim of this book is to adddress the challenge of forging a legitimate Constitution for the EU. The authors aim to clarify the constitutional status of the EU, to take stock of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights and Convention on the Future of Europe as vehicles to forster and create a European constitution.
The books are part of the series Routledge Studies on Democratizing Europe . John Erik Fossum is co-editor of this series.
"Is there a gidsland? Mentor states in world politics" (Guest editor), International Journal, Vol LXI, No. 4, 2006.
"Conceptualizing the European Union Through Four Strategies of Comparison", Comparative European Politics No. 4, 2006.
"The EU's fledgling society: From deafening silence to critical voice in European constitution making" (H. J. Trenz co-author) Journal of Civil Society, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2006.
"Conceptualising the EU’s Social Constituency", European Journal of Social Theory Vol. 8, No. 2, 2005.
"The Constitution’s Gift? A Deliberative Democratic Analysis of Constitution Making in the European Union" (A. J. Menéndez co-author) European Law Journal Vol. 11, No. 4, 2005.
"Europe in Search of Legitimacy: Strategies of Legitimation Assessed" (E. O. Eriksen co-author) International Political Science Review Vol. 25, No. 4, 2004.
"The European Union – In Search of an Identity", European Journal of Political Theory Vol. 2, No.3, 2003.
"Democracy through strong publics in the EU?" (E. O. Eriksen co-author) Journal of Common Market Studies Vol. 40, No. 3, 2002.
"Identity-politics in the European Union", Journal of European Integration Vol. 23, 2001.
The Chartering of Europe: The Charter of Fundamental Rights and its Constitutional Implications (E. O. Eriksen and A. J. Menéndez co-editors) Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden, 2003.
Democracy in the European Union - Integration through Deliberation? (E. O. Eriksen co-editor) London: Routledge, 2000.